We got a late start because the weather was boring. We hiked part of the Tam-a-lau Trail. We started at the 'you are here', hiked up 1 mile and 600 feet to the top of the peninsula and back. The GPS said 5.25 miles, 850 feet vertical. We are camped where the red star is. The Crooked and the Deschutes rivers in deep canyons come together here to form Lake Billy Chinook. The Metolius river comes in just a bit lower. Very dramatic views. This map of the park shows how the three rivers come together.
Part of the Tam-a-lau trail on the way up. The view from the top.The Deschutes river on the left and the Crooked River on the right come together at the far end of the 'island'. The whole area was formed by lava flows and the rivers cut the deep canyons through.
Looking across the Crooked river canyon to the campground on the opposite rim. It is to the left of the orange pumpkin patch. The sun finally came out as we were descending. The colors were beautiful. John is on the trail in the lower right of the photo. In front of him in the distance is the island. The Deschutes river canyon is to the left.
Looking up at some of the volcanic formations in the rim of the canyon. Nice light on the Deschutes river canyon.
These huge rocks are on a bench half way up. Tam-a-lau means 'place of big rocks on the ground' in the local native american language. I thought this piece of wood was a sign beside the trail, looks like maybe it had something stapled on it at one time, but found this drawing on the water mark. Cute.
Today was in the 60's, cloudy and brief moments of sun. We went 14 miles upstream on the Crooked River to Smith Rock State Park. We hiked the red trail over Misery Ridge. You can see a bit of the River trail along the river that is most of the hike. The park is very popular with climbers. Also spectacular.
A little bit of sun on the subject. Many hazards, take lots of water and watch out for rattlesnakes and cougars. This climber was climbing something I might try if I were to climb, lots of hand and foot holds. Most of the rest of the climbs looked like sheer cliffs to me.
Fall colors along the river. Beautiful color on the ridges and some blue sky. We got the sun for a minute here.
The river wraps around these rocks. This is the river on the back side. John ahead on the trail as it starts up. Notice the tall rock knob in the distance. It is called Monkey's face.
I can kind of see the monkey's face on the right side top-eye, nose and mouth. As we got closer we could see this guy climbing up the face of it. I put little red stars where he is in the distant shots. The last part shows the guy belaying him. He is standing on what looks like a board wedged into a crack. Amazing. There are also climbers sitting in the monkey's mouth. John ahead on Misery Ridge trail, a most difficult trail
Looking down on the Crooked River valley below. This is the Misery Ridge trail we hiked up from above. It is amazing we are only at around 2500 feet and I can breathe here, lots of O2 so it was not so bad.
So the climbers in the monkey's mouth climbed up higher while we hiked up. We had lots of climbing entertainment to take our minds off our climb up. Red arrow in the second shot where the climber is. Beautiful views of the landscape below.
The trail going down was even steeper and had steeper drop offs. I learned when I took climbing classes as a youngster that I am not good at it and really bad with big drop offs. The top of this trail made me apprehensive. Looking at the Crooked River Valley below us on the front side of the formation.
John is ahead of closer to the bottom. He said if I fell he could catch me. The lawn down there is a helipad for the medivac helicopters. Our car is on top of the ridge on the other side. The GPS said we hiked 5 miles with 1000 feet vertical.
There were two of these rescue litters and crutches at the bottom of the faces. Balance rock and cairn alcove, with rocks in every conceivable hole.
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